Manish Tewari warns BRICS of AI 'race to the bottom', digital divide

Congress MP Manish Tewari urged BRICS to focus on artificial intelligence to prevent a widening digital divide with the Global North. He stressed the need for safeguards to stop the race for super AI from turning into a 'race to the bottom'.

Congress MP Manish Tewari on Thursday said that the BRICS grouping must focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and frontier technologies to ensure that the race for innovation does not lead to a widening digital divide between the Global South and the Global North. He said there was a need to establish safeguards to prevent the race to develop super artificial intelligence from turning into a "race to the bottom".

Speaking to ANI, Congress MP said, “In those circumstances, there are guardrails which need to be put into place in order to see that this race to invent or innovate super artificial intelligence does not morph into a race to the bottom. Artificial intelligence and the other frontier technologies of the fourth industrial revolution will define the remaining 74 years of the 21st century. This is the foremost thing which BRICS must apply itself to because all the innovation which is driving this relentless march of artificial intelligence and other frontier technologies is taking place in the north and therefore in the global north, and so therefore since BRICS is a grouping of the global south it needs to pay utmost attention to something which is now assuming criticality.”

Tewari said artificial intelligence and other frontier technologies of the fourth industrial revolution would define the remaining years of the 21st century and should be a key focus area for BRICS. He said most of the innovation driving the development of artificial intelligence and other frontier technologies was taking place in the Global North, and the BRICS grouping, representing the Global South, needed to pay greater attention to the issue. “And the direction in which this innovation is going, there is a need to pay utmost attention and pay utmost attention to it. Because all the inventions which are taking place in artificial intelligence and which are moving towards super artificial intelligence with great intensity are all taking place in the Global North. And the digital divide between the Global South and the Global North is increasing,” he said.

BRICS Summit in New Delhi

“A group of 5 countries which has now become a group of 11 countries. In this economic world, there is a very special partnership, and therefore this summit is taking place in India, and this thing needs to be taken into consideration,” Tewari further said.

India will host the BRICS Summit in New Delhi from September 12-13, with proceedings guided by the official theme, "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability".

Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the summit, marking his second visit to India in under a year following the annual bilateral summit in New Delhi in December 2025. Chinese President Xi Jinping is also expected to attend, though China has not formally confirmed his participation. The summit's prominent attendees include South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul are also set to take part, while United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is likely to participate, though a formal announcement is awaited. (ANI)

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